CarlShulman comments on Dead Aid - Less Wrong

1 Post author: PhilGoetz 17 March 2009 02:51PM

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Comment author: CarlShulman 17 March 2009 08:56:42PM *  2 points [-]

The book blurbs aren't raising novel points, and reviews of the book indicate that it doesn't do so either. It also takes one viewpoint in a field where intellectual opinion is diverse. It's questionable whether this is on-topic, but if you do want to inform discussions of altruism with relevant literatures, then I would advise linking to a representative sample of the existing work (which includes strong popular books like Sach's and Easterly's if you don't just want to link academic work) instead of the blurb for a single unrepresentative book that you haven't read.

Comment author: RobinHanson 18 March 2009 03:22:11PM 0 points [-]

I wouldn't veto the general topic, but I would rather see some of the data that this conclusion is based on, rather than just general conclusions someone draws, especially when so may draw such different conclusions.